


Who Turned Out The Lights

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2000-11-06
Updated: 2000-11-06
Packaged: 2019-05-15 12:48:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14790809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: The power goes out in the White House.





	Who Turned Out The Lights

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

Who turned out the lights?

Summary: Basically just a silly WW story from Donna’s POV. Some laughs, little romance, lots of people yelling at Josh. :-) Plus I’m sure there’s back-up power in the White House, but that would ruin the whole storyline. Enjoy!

Rating: G

 

I jumped as a huge crash of thunder shook the building. I heard the sound of papers flying and knew it had startled Josh too. "Don’t forget to save your work, Josh," I called. "Why?" Josh asked. "Cause if the power goes, and you have your laptop plugged in like you guys normally do when you’re in your offices, you’ll lose all your work." I said. Josh came to the door of his office. "Fine." He turned around, hit ‘Save’ and was about to turn around again as- the power died. Completely. I heard shouts of rage and panic as the other hardworking staffers found that they should have listened to their secretaries. C.J. was the first to crash into Josh’s office behind him. He whipped around. "Oh, hi C.J. How ya doin’?" he asked. C.J. glared at him, then blinked. "Who’s got the flashlight?" she asked. I stood up and walked into Josh’s office and showed them my key chain flashlight which I had turned on- and accidentally shined into C.J.’s eyes. "Oh, it’s yours." C.J. said before turning back to Josh. "Joshua, I’m doing fine. I just lost all the information for the press briefing I should be doing"- she squinted at her watch- "two minutes ago, along with several files Sam just e-mailed me, so all, things considered, I’m doing just peachy." She stalked out of his office and slammed the door just as another crash of thunder shook the building. I managed to catch one of the pictures that fell off the wall. Josh saved another. Two crashed to the floor. C.J. opened the door and stuck her head in. "How many was that?" Josh slammed the door in her face. I bent over the pictures with my flashlight. "I’ll clean these up, Donna," Josh said. "You go find another flashlight." I stood up and began to walk out. "Wait! I need the flashlight." I turned around. "You want me to find another flashlight without any light of my own?" I asked incredulously. Josh nodded, grabbed the light, and shoved me out the door. "Great guy," I muttered as I headed off down the hall.

I had barely taken ten steps when I ran into Toby. "Ouch!" I cried as he stepped on my toes. "Is Josh in his office?" Toby growled, looking infuriated with the world. I nodded. "Good. I could kil-, no someone already tried that. I could severely hur- no, someone beat me to that too! I could yell at him for hours on end." Toby said as he headed towards Josh’s office. I found Carol, sitting at her desk, drumming her fingers on her desk. "Hi Carol," I said. "Oh, hey Donna. What’s up?" I grinned. Josh sent me on a mission to find him a flashlight. He took the one I had." Carol sighed. "Least you’ve got something to do. C.J. told me not to do anything until she got back. I’m also supposed to keep Danny out of her office," she finished with a grin. I laughed and glanced down the hall. "Well, you’ll have something to do now!" I said as Danny headed towards C.J.’s office. "Uh, Danny, you’re not supposed to"- Carol stopped as Danny shut the door behind him. Carol shrugged. "Oh well. I tried." I laughed again and continued my search, wondering where I’d find a flashlight. I decided to ask Mrs. Landingham- she knew where just about everything was. I headed in that direction, but was stopped by Charlie. "Donna, have you seen the President?" he asked, looking nervous. "No… why?" I replied. Charlie bit his lip. "Well, his back was bothering him today, and I think he took the wrong painkillers, and, well…" I shook my head. The President tended to go a little loopy if he took the wrong medicine. "Good luck Charlie," I said. He made a face. "Yeah. Sure."

Mrs. Landingham was at her desk, on the phone with someone. "Another thirty minutes? Mm-hmm. Really. Okay. Thank you." She hung up and looked up at me. "Hello Donna. How can I help you?"

"Was that the power company?"

"Mm-hmm. Power should be back on in about half an hour. Until then, Charlie will have to use his flashlight to find the leader of the free world, who is presently wandering the White House with no idea where he’s going."

"Mrs. Landingham, do you know where there might be some extra flashlights? Josh needs one."

"Oh, I’m sure there are some in one of the old offices. I think there’s a storage closet down there… somewhere in the 330s, I believe."

"Thanks, Mrs. Landingham." I headed off, thinking about how freakish it was that Mrs. Landingham apparently had the whole White House memorized.

I was headed in the direction of the basement when I bumped into Sam, going very fast in the opposite direction. He skidded to a stop when he saw me, and asked, "Is C.J. really ticked off with me?" Giving Sam an odd look, I shook my head. "No… why would she be?"

"Well… I accidentally sent her the wrong files." He paused. "Some sorta personal files, so, uh…" I rolled my eyes and continued looking for the basement. I found the staircase when I nearly tripped down it. I went down as carefully as I could, then, mentally cursing Josh for taking my flashlight, I began to search for the 330s. After bypassing them several times, I finally found a storage closet with the door half open. I stepped in and tripped over something. Actually, it was a somebody, because whoever it was yelped when I fell over them. "Donna? Is that you?" Josh’s muffled voice asked. "JOSH!" I yelled. He banged his head on something getting up. "What are you doing down here?" I asked as he sat up. "You were taking too long getting the flashlight, so I decided to come down here and get it myself."

"You mean you knew where this was the whole time?"

"Yep."

"And you sent me down without a flashlight of my own."

"Yep."

"Joshua Lyman…"

"What?!" Josh said, looking perplexed, as if he couldn’t figured out what he did wrong. I sighed and shook my head. "Why were you on the floor?" I asked. "I dropped you flashlight, and it rolled under those shelves, and I couldn’t reach it. I had the door open so that it wouldn’t lock when it"- he stopped and looked at the firmly shut door, then looked at me. "You didn’t."

"I didn’t know it locked when it closed!"

"Well, if this day could get any worse, it probably would right about now." As he spoke, the light that was coming from my flashlight died. I looked at the spot where I thought Josh was sitting. He sighed and stood up. "Any idea where the flashlights are?" he asked. I shook my head, then, figuring he couldn’t see me, said "No." I heard him opening boxes and looking around as best he could. I offered to help, but he said he didn’t need any. So I sat there, in a dark closet, with Josh. This definitely had potential.

I had been staring into space for quite some time when I realized that Josh apparently wasn’t looking around anymore. "Josh?" I said, trying to figure out where he could be. It wasn’t a big closet. As I mused over these things, Josh covered my eyes and cried, "Guess who?"

"You have got to be kidding me." I said as I stood up and tried to turn around. Instead, Josh came around so he was facing me, then gently kissed me, pulled back, then we kissed for an even longer time. We were still standing there, holding each other, when I noticed light coming in from under the door. "Hey, the power’s on!" I said. Josh looked at me. "Do you really want to go back out yet?"

"No."

 

THE END

  

  



End file.
